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The highlight of Ronnie Irani’s benefit year – a professional kickboxing and martial arts show – is to be held at Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre at Chelmsford on October 4. It will feature Europe’s leading kickboxers battling it out for European and World Title bouts in a televised event, plus martial arts and weapons demonstrations. All proceeds are in aid of the Ronnie Irani Benefit Fund.Ronnie won’t be taking part himself, especially as he has just had a major knee operation, but he is usually the first in the ring. Since moving to Essex from Lancashire, he has used kickboxing as a way of preparing for the past six seasons.”I really enjoy kickboxing and find the training helps to develop many of the fitness attributes which I need for my cricket training,” Ronnie said. “As a teenager I found that the martial arts training involved with the kickboxing helped give me focus and direction and I feel it is a great thing for youngsters and all ages to get involved in.”Tickets go on sale from tomorrow and are available from The Fitness Academy Martial Art Centre, Church Road, Boreham tel. 01245 467680 and Terrence Hill Bespoke Tailors Maldon Road Great Baddow tel. 01245 471193.

Rahul Dravid struck an effortless unbeaten 120 for Scotland at Taunton, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Somerset winning a closely fought National League match by one wicket.Dravid reached his half-century in 57 balls, and then raced to his hundred in another 34 deliveries, in an innings which included three sixes and 11 fours. “That is my best innings for a while,” he admitted. “I started slowly but I’m very pleased. It’s just a shame the result did not go our way.”He arrived with Scotland on 49 for 2 and entertained a large crowd with a classy performance. He gave just one chance, a hard catch to Keith Dutch at midwicket when he had 94, but that apart he hardly played a false stroke. He reached his hundred with a towering six in the penultimate over of the innings.Dravid will be in action again on Tuesday when Scotland take on Middlesex in the unfamiliar surroundings of Richmond, a club ground which is, rather confusingly, in Surrey.

Glamorgan ended another rain-affected day on 288-3, thanks to half-centuries by DavidHemp, Mike Powell, and Matthew Maynard, with the latter hitting fifty from just42 balls in yet another glorious exhibition of strokeplay in the evening sunshine.Together with Mike Powell, Maynard added 129 in just 21 overs as Glamorgan rapidlyreduced their first innings deficit to 243 runs, and the Welsh county need just 94 runs tomorrowto avoid the follow-on.Heavy morning rain and afternoon drizzle prevented play from starting until 4.30pm,and in the third over of the day, David Hemp reached his half-century with animmaculate cover drive – his 9th boundary. But after sharing a fifty run partnershipwith Mike Powell, Hemp chopped a short delivery from Mullally onto his stumps.Powell reached his half century with a pair of sumptious drives – the first struckfiercely past mid on, and the second punched through the offside. Maynard, aftera watchful start, then launched into Chris Tremlett striking the young bowler for fiveconsecutive boundaries, before contemptuously pulling Tremlett for six high onto the roofof the Sophia Gardens pavilion, as the Hampshire paceman conceeded 44 runs in two overs.Glamorgan supporters will be hoping for fine weather on Saturday morning, and furthermajestic batting from Maynard who currently is in the form of his life.

“I like to get my eye in at that time – one hundred.”Here lies the secret behind the success of the great converter – Mathew Sinclair, who scored his ninth career 150-plus innings yesterday.The innings has dominated a game between Central Districts and Canterbury in which the next highest score has been Ben Smith’s 41.Sinclair’s ability to make big scores has kept selectors interested in the right-handed stroke player, despite a recent run of poor Test returns.Discussions with Sir Richard Hadlee and CLEAR Black Caps player co-ordinator Ashley Ross at the Village Green this week have demonstrated that Sinclair is still in the management’s thoughts despite the emergence of Lou Vincent and Brendon McCullum as top order international batsmen while Sinclair has been unobtrusively accumulating for CD. He has made timely scores of 161 and 171 in the last week.A hint of Sinclair’s determination was shown by CD captain Glen Sulzberger revealing that Sinclair was disappointed not to get 200 against Otago.When he was dismissed by Canterbury’s combative fast bowler Wade Cornelius yesterday as he neared a fourth career double century the pair had a brief slanging match mid-pitch. Cornelius has been injected with some of the fuel that used to drive Dayle Hadlee over the winter at the Hadlee-run Academy and was able to make Sinclair mis-pull after a 339-ball stay. But Hadlee was impressed by both players, and the whisper is that Sinclair will stay in the Test team.The 18-Test veteran has scored an impressive 1079 Test runs at 43.16, with three centuries all 150 or above, but just one fifty.Sinclair’s phenomenal run of tall centuries run in descending order: 214, 204, 203 not out, 189, 182, 171, 166 not out, 161, 150, 145, 102 and 100 not out. That means when he reaches one hundred Sinclair, on average, goes onto 165.58.”You know when you always like to talk about someone going on and getting the big one?” he asked.”I guess for me that’s the sort of thing I like to go on and do.”It’s that sort of stage when I don’t really want to get out to be honest. You’ve got yourself set at the crease and you want to go on and that’s my philosophy for it,” he told CricInfo.But as to a Test place Sinclair was giving less away.”It’s not my decision at the end of the day so I can’t really say yes or no for it,” he said.However, the chances are that Sinclair’s ability to submerge the opposition with his weight of runs, as he has done with Otago and Canterbury in the last week, will nudge the selectors into keeping New Zealand’s big hundred-man in the Test team.

As a result of Australia beating England in their last Pool A match, the reigning champions will finish first with 24 points and India will qualify for the Super Six in second place with 20 points. The only doubt remaining is whether England, Zimbabwe, or even Pakistan will take the third place from the group.If Zimbabwe beat Pakistan in Bulawayo, they will take the last spot in the Super Six with 16 points, and they will still go through even if they only take two points from the match.However, should Pakistan win, England, Pakistan and Zimbabwe will all be level on 12 points and the outcome will be decided on run rate as, in that instance, all will have the same number of points, same number of wins and each will have one win in matches played between themselves.As Zimbabwe will have to lose the game to be level on points with England and Pakistan, they will be unable to improve their net run rate to move above England, although Pakistan still could.For Pakistan to achieve a better run rate than England’s, the International Cricket Council have come up with the following possibilities:With Pakistan batting first, if they score 200 they will need to dismiss Zimbabwe for 13 or less. If they score 250 they will need to dismiss Zimbabwe for 62 or less while 300 sets a target of 112 or less. Should Pakistan reach the dizzy heights of 350, the target goes up to 161.The situation in Pool B is now straightforward, with Kenya, Sri Lanka and New Zealand already assured of a place in the Super Six stage. The only doubt concerns which side occupies which position.With one match between Kenya and West Indies to be completed, Sri Lanka top the group with 18 points, Kenya are in second place by virtue of their win against New Zealand who are third. Both have 16 points. New Zealand will finish third in the group, but obviously there is a chance for Kenya to take top spot. Even two points for Kenya in their last match would enable them to top the group as they beat Sri lanka in the match between the two sides.

*Tamil Nadu restrict HyderabadTamil Nadu restricted Hyderabad to just 199 on Day One of their Ranji Trophy league match at Chennai.Winning the toss, Hyderabad opted to bat first. Wickets fell fast, and four batsmen were back in the pavilion with just 64 on the board. There followed a slow partnership between D Vinay Kumar and Arjun Yadav. Yadav made 71 off 176 balls, with nine fours and a six, and was the top-scorer of the innings.Yadav fell just before the close of play. At stumps, Hyderabad were 199 for five, with Vinay Kumar unbeaten on 56 off 176 balls, and M Srinivas on 0 off three balls. For the home side, skipper Robin Singh bowled impressively, returning figures of 14-8-12-2.*Kerala crumble on Day OneGoa made the most of its advantage with the toss, bowling Kerala out on Day One of their Ranji Trophy league match at Panaji on Monday.Opting to field first, Goa had Kerala in many problems when three batsmen fell for 12 runs. The biggest partnership of the innings came from Ajay Kudva and Sreekumar Nair, who put on 82 runs for the sixth wicket.Kudva fell first, having made 46 off 118 balls. Nair was the ninth wicket to fall; he made 51 off 145 balls. The innings folded for 199, in 77 overs. For Goa, Avinash Aware, Narayan Kambli and Husen Khalid picked three wickets each. In reply, Goa were 22 for no loss at stumps.*Venugopal Rao holds Andhra togetherY Venugopal Rao hit an unbeaten 74 to hold the Andhra Pradesh innings together in their Ranji Trophy league match against Karnataka at Kurnool on Monday.Winning the toss, Andhra Pradesh elected to bat but lost one opener early. There were, however, a string of significant scores all through the batting line-up. GN Srinivas made 39, and Fayaz Ahmed scored 48.At the close of play, Andhra Pradesh were 251/5, with Venugopal Rao batting on 74 and RVC Prasad not out on 2. For Karnataka, Dodda Ganesh was the best bowler, picking up two for 46.

FULL NAME: Richard William Sims
BORN: At Chinhoyi, 23 July 1979
MAJOR TEAMS: CFX Academy (1999/2000), Manicaland (2000/01 to date). Presentclub team: Mutare Sports Club.
KNOWN AS: Richard/Richie Sims. Nicknames: Gwil (from his father’s name)
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Off Spin
OCCUPATION: CFX Academy student
FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: 10-12 March 2000, CFX Academy v Midlands, at Kwekwe
TEST DEBUT: Still awaited
ODI DEBUT: Still awaited
BIOGRAPHY (updated January 2002)Unusually, Richie Sims comes from a family with no interest in cricket, yet he had an outstanding record as a player at junior school. In his early adult career he did not quite maintain the promise he showed in his earliest years, but was rather belatedly offered a place at the CFX Academy and thus given a new chance to make a name for himself in the cricket world.Richie’s first encounter with the game came in his Grade Two year at Rydings Primary School in the northern area of Mashonaland. His father, who was a baseball player and obviously passed on his ball skills to his son, was a farmer at Banket, northwest of Harare and not far from Chinhoyi, where Richie’s mother went for his birth. Richie lived all his life on the farm until he left school.Richie says that he first played in the small school’s Colts side in Grade Two as they were short of players, and did well enough to keep his place, spending four years in the colts side and then two in the senior team. His highest score for the school team was 144, which he made twice, and his best bowling 10 wickets for 15 runs and 8 wickets for no runs, bowling as fast as he could, but he cannot remember the opposition. He thinks he scored four or five centuries at junior school, opening the innings and also captaining the side. He represented Northwestern Districts in the primary schools cricket week, although he cannot remember his performances, and in his final year he was selected for the national primary schools team. His coach then had the name, as far as he recalls, of Pat Geary, and he did most to prepare Richie for cricket.He progressed to Lomagundi College and played in the team throughout, captaining all his age-group teams until Form Three, when he started playing for the school senior side halfway through the year. He did not maintain quite the same prodigious standard he had shown at junior school, scoring just one century during his years there, against an English school touring the country. “I got a few wickets here and there,” he said, now bowling medium-pace seamers. “The coaches weren’t really qualified at high school and we just went through the motions, really.” He does not offer this as an excuse, but perhaps it accounts for his less productive years.Despite his lesser performances at high school he played for national teams at Under-13 and Under-15 levels, and says his deeds there were `fairly average, really’. He later changed his bowling style again to off-spin, considering himself and all-rounder, although his bowling at first received limited opportunities. “There aren’t many of us [off-spinners] around,” he says. “So I thought I would give it a bash and see how it goes.”He left school at the end of 1997 and did a computer-programming course in Harare for two years before applying to join the Academy. He played cricket for Old Hararians and also winter league for Chinhoyi, where he regained some of his best form, recording three centuries for them. For Old Hararians he `scored a few fifties and took a few wickets’.His interest in cricket was still great, though, and he decided, largely on his own initiative, to apply for the CFX Academy for the year 2000, and was duly accepted. His parents, despite their lack of interest in cricket, gave him their backing. Richie thinks it was mainly his record as a representative player in age-group teams over the years that earned him selection over other candidates. He pays tribute to Dave Houghton who has recently joined the coaching staff at the Academy and has helped him develop his game.Richie played in two of the Academy’s four Logan Cup matches early in 2000, but without success. He had little personal success, “but it was very good fun and I learned a lot from it. I learned how to approach things better mentally, instead of just walking out on the field and playing.” In 2001 he was been posted to Manicaland for the remaining two years of his contract. “It will be quite a good experience,” he said at the time, although as yet he knew little of the area. When given the choice of Harare or Mutare, he enterprisingly chose the latter and has not regretted it. He speaks enthusiastically about the progress made by cricket in the province and his coaching at the local high school.Richie flourished in Mutare, making runs and taking good wickets for the Mutare Sports Club side. His performances, which included league centuries against Harare Sports Club and Universals, and two Logan Cup fifties, earned him recognition in the Zimbabwe Board XI. His best performance for them to date is his eighty in the match against Gauteng B, which was a vital contribution towards victory in a run chase.As a batsman Richie likes to bat between numbers four and six. He feels his main strength is in the drive, and considers himself as a straight hitter, although he also plays the pull well. He has only recently taken to bowling off-spin, but has developed an arm ball – `and a fast straight one and a slow straight one!’. He suffers, though, from the lack of an off-spinning mentor in the country now that John Traicos has immigrated to Australia. He usually fields in close as he cannot throw well after an arm operation after a rugby injury at school, or `in the ring’ in one-day cricket.Richie was also a notable rugby player at scrum-half who represented Zimbabwe Schools, and the injury took place on tour in South Africa, during Craven Week. It does not affect his bowling, but he still cannot throw well, and persuaded him to give up rugby to concentrate on cricket. He has had no major cricket injuries, although he did suffer some back trouble in Form Two which persuaded him to give up fast bowling. He represented national rugby teams from junior school upwards and says, “I’ve actually made more rugby national sides than I’ve made cricket!”In 2000 he played for Helensburgh, west of Glasgow in Scotland, and had a good season, taking `lot of wickets, with two hundreds, three nineties and a lot of fifties’. He averaged about 51 with the bat for the season. He returned again in 2001, and despite having a great many matches rained off managed a good season with three centuries. He also did plenty of bowling, with success.When his career is over he may well put his computer training to good use or perhaps take up farming, although he knows that the present situation for farmers in the country is not good. “But it’s quite far away, I hope!” he says.Cricket heroes: Ian Botham, Shane Warne and Steve Waugh. “I haven’t really tried to model my game on anybody, but I admire Steve Waugh because of the way he plays, and I try to play like him.”Toughest opponents: “The fastest bowler I ever faced was Travis Friend. Heath Streak is accurate and it’s hard to score runs off him. I haven’t really played against any of the higher-class batsmen; there are no really outstanding players at club cricket.”Personal ambitions: “Obviously to play for Zimbabwe; that’s about it at the moment. I’d like to play club cricket for England for a long time still, and maybe in New Zealand.”Proudest achievement: “Funnily enough it was getting Sportsman of the Year at high school, and also making Zim Schools rugby in Upper Sixth.”Best friends in cricket: “I’ve got a lot of friends: John Vaughan-Davies, Colin Delport, Greg Lamb, Travis Friend, Ryan King . . . everyone at the Academy, really!”Other sports: “Occasionally I play squash and golf, and go fishing.” He also played tennis, hockey and athletics (cross-country) as school besides rugby.Outside interests: Fishing, going to Kariba and the Zambezi, relaxing and watching videos, hanging round with my mates. “When I’m not playing cricket I’d rather hang around with my mates who aren’t playing cricket so we don’t talk about it!”

At first, Jagmohan Dalmiya’s salvo at the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), and its marketing arm in India, Nimbus, appears to be a classic red herring. Dalmiya is in troubled waters regarding the GCC’s reparation claim to the International Cricket Council (ICC). The ICC had promised the GCC, which represents the sponsors of the event, something it did not own and could not deliver – the players’ commercial rights. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had taken the onus for this on itself by signing the Participating Nations Agreement (PNA). Naturally, they could not deliver, and the GCC, quite rightly, wants reparation.Now that Dalmiya’s friend and former lieutenant, Ehsan Mani, has taken over at the ICC, he may not wish to take issue with them. Attacking the GCC – or, in this case, Nimbus – is the obvious thing to do if Dalmiya is trying to deflect blame for the contracts fiasco. So is his assault on Nimbus just a cheap attempt to muddy the waters?Perhaps it is; but maybe it’s not. The GCC had won the marketing rights to the ICC events in question, despite bidding over US$100 million less than the highest bidder, Zee, because they stressed on the quality of their marketing. They would not merely sell TV rights, they said, but market the game of cricket itself and expand its reach. If their promises of marketing the event well were the clincher in the deal, then the value given by the ICC to their marketing ability must be presumed to be worth a significant amount – if not the amount by which they fell short of Zee’s bid.Had the GCC then not marketed the event as well as they had promised, the ICC – and its constituents – would have a valid bone to pick, similar to the one the GCC is picking with the contracts issue. And if the BCCI were to choose to take action on this, where would they announce this intention? Obviously, at the ongoing BCCI working committee meeting. Thus there is nothing suspicious about the timing of Dalmiya’s statements – if he has a valid case.Dalmiya has spoken with pride in the past of how the BCCI’s workings are transparent, and it is incumbent upon him now to back up his claims against the GCC and Nimbus with some details. What does he mean by the “poor marketing” that he refers to? What was the GCC supposed to do, in marketing terms, which they did not do? What commercial value does the BCCI ascribe to this failing of the GCC? Having fired a salvo, Dalmiya must back it up – or risk his red herring being taken with a pinch of salt.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden CricInfo in India.

England Under 19 lost by 168 runs in its one-day match against the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) Under 19 in Adelaide today. The game was the team’s third warm-up match before the ICC Under 19 World Cup starts later this month in New Zealand.The Australians won the toss, batted first and scored 331 for eight wickets in their 50 overs. Opening batsmen Jarrad Burke (100) and Craig Simmons (88) laid the cornerstone of their innings with an opening partnership of 153. ACB U19 captain and middle-order batsman, Cameron White, hit a quick-fire 60 off 39 balls. For England Nadeem Malik, Kyle Hogg and Alex Roberts captured two wickets each.In reply England U19 started well with opening batsmen Kadeer Ali (43) andMark Pettini (23) putting on 72 for the first wicket. The team, however, was eventually dismissed for 163 in 38.5 overs. Beau Casson, the ACB U19’s left-arm chinaman bowler, returned impressive figures of six wickets for 26 runs off 9.5 overs.England U19 will play one more game against the ACB U19, on Friday 11 January, before leaving for the World Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Sunday 13 January.

* Selectors to pick Test squad on August 2The Indian cricket selectors would meet in Mumbai on August 2 to pickthe Test squad for the three Test matches against Sri Lanka fromAugust 14.The executive secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in IndiaSharad Diwadkar, told PTI in Mumbai on Thursday that four to fivechanges are likely from the squad which is playing in the on-goingtriangular series with New Zealand as the third team.The three Test matches would be played at Galle (from August 14 to18), Kandy (from August 22-26) and at the SSC in Colombo (from August29 to September 2).* BCCI’s advisory committee to meet in Mumbai on August 1The Indian Cricket Board’s (BCCI) advisory committee, chaired byformer Indian team skipper Sunil Gavaskar, would meet at the CricketClub of India (CCI) in Mumbai on August 1.BCCI executive secretary, Sharad Diwadkar, told PTI in Mumbai onFriday on Friday that the main agenda would be to discuss the domesticcalendar and the new formats for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophyfor the new season."The selection committee will meet the following day to pick the Testsquad for the three-match series in Sri Lanka," Diwadkar added.* CBI team in Monaco to probe award of telecast rightsA CBI team has reached Monaco to probe the alleged bungling in theaward of telecast rights of the 1999 World Cup played in England,agency sources said in New Delhi on Thursday. The Deputy InspectorGeneral of the Anti-Corrpution Unit of the CBI SP Singh reachedMonaco, an island located at the south-eastern Mediterranean coast ofFrance, earlier this week to probe the alleged bungling.CBI sources said that the television deal between the InternationalCricket Council, officials of Doordarshan and Worldtel took place inthis island and the sleuths are hopeful of “picking up some threadsabout the deal.”Singh earlier visited London and held extensive discussions with ICC’sAnti-Corruption unit officials in connection with investigation intothe controversial television rights deal for the ICC knock outtournament in Dhaka three years ago.